1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-mirror heliostat.
2. Description of Related Art
A heliostat is an apparatus having a mirror that is turned to track the sun and continuously reflect sunlight onto a given spot. One type of the heliostat employs and turns a single large mirror. Another type is a multi-mirror heliostat that employs a plurality of mirrors to form a mirror assembly and turns the mirror assembly like a single large mirror. The multi-mirror heliostat is advantageous because each mirror may involve a smaller distortion and the mirror assembly is adjustable to accurately reflect and concentrate light onto a given spot.
The multi-mirror heliostat supports the mirrors with a frame and separately adjusts the angle of each mirror so that sunlight made incident to the mirror assembly in an optical axis direction of the mirror assembly may be reflected by each mirror onto a target position. The heliostat turns the mirror assembly, in which the angle of each mirror has been adjusted, together with the frame according to movement of the sun, to continuously reflect sunlight onto the target position. A related art concerning the multi-mirror heliostat is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-139761.